I’ll go first. Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree. It’s like being continually reminded that I am in a movie. I swear the success of that movie has directly lead to every blockbuster having to have a joke every 30 seconds
Horror films are where art flourishes and it has a huge culture of being outside of Hollywood which is just a plus. Also the acting is usually way better
Last year’s DnD movie is the best film of the last ten or so years. It succeeded on every level, except in the box office.
My hypothesis is that Hasbro insisted on branding it “Dungeons & Dragons” to push the brand, and non-gamers figured it wasn’t for them. If they’d have made the main title “Honor among Thieves”, all the game nerds would have seen the DnD logo, and others wouldn’t have been turned off *. As it stands, people will find it and it’ll become the new “Starship Troopers” that bombed but shines forever in retrospect.
* See “Arcane”.
I think it deserved to do better at the box office but I disagree calling it that good, primarily by counterexample (which I’ll get to). It had an entertaining cast, an entertaining plot and some good twists but it wasn’t unpredictable and the audience it was best for was the audience who recognised the constant homages to the experience of playing DnD - my primary example is the scene of the main character breaking out of prison completely unnecessarily.
The movie was made by Hasbro to sell dungeons and dragons (which, to be fair, you do mention) and I think as a fan of the ttrpg it did a great job of capturing that experience as a movie. I can’t call it the film of the year though, let alone the decade.
What makes you say it’s better than, for example, Blade Runner 2049 or Avengers Endgame, both being movies similarly sprouting from established brands? I would argue Dune is significantly better (talking about movies with a brand) also.
Outside the established brand space, you see movies like JoJo Rabbit, Marriage Story and Power of the Dog. All of my examples have been off arbitrary top 10/top 50 lists of the last 5 or last 10 years and I’m honestly curious about why you think the DnD movie beats all of them?
Edit: in saying that, upvoting because this is almost certainly an unpopular opinion
Bladerunner was pretentious film school drivel. It’s a montage of poetic, symbolic imagery that makes no sense as an actual narrative. Dune was far, far superior because the mythic reality is tied together into a classic hero story, and the whole thing is fantastical enough for Villaneuve’s whole thing to work. I can’t wait for the second one.
Avengers Endgame was just more of the same MCU formula, trotting out the usual tropes on an ever-increasing scale. Pretty good, as far as all that goes, but really devoid of any tension or depth, IMHO. Guardians 1 is a far better film.
As for those others, I haven’t seen them, though they’re all on my list. I’m open to any of them being better… of course my opinion will be limited to movies I’ve actually seen. But aside from glib hot takes, there’s not much meaning in comparing completely different films. My essential point is that DnD is an utterly superb movie, and I’ll maintain that in its freshness, surprising depth, and comedic sparkle, it’s at least the best movie of its kind in a long time.
If Pulp Fiction is on, unless it’s been a few years I’ll probably switch the channel, if Django Unchained is on though…I’m grabbing a snack and watching it everytime. This isn’t to say Pulp Fiction sucks, just think Django’s more entertaining.
I could never enjoy Django. It’s not a bad movie, but the way I watch a Tarantino movie you get desensitized by the violence and it becomes part of the humor and charm. I couldn’t do that in Django. The theme was too serious for me. Curiously I didn’t feel the same way in Inglorious Basterds.
Oh, and let’s get this out of the way. I fucking LOVED the Hateful Eight. It’s pure Tarantino.
Gonna try to phrase this an inflammatory way:
People who like bad movies have been conditioned by consumerism to not appreciate art. They believe spectacle, humour, and a tight plot are ‘good enough’, and they don’t value thoughtfulness, novelty, beauty, or abrasiveness nearly enough. Film is more than a way to fill time and have fun. Film is more than an explosion, a laugh, and a happy ending.
On an unrelated note: Mad Max: Fury Road is one of my favourite movies.
It’s strange that you said that and then said you liked fury road. I thought fury road was the epitome of spectacle and production value with actual value.
Every animated movie looks the same now
